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A weekend of NASCAR racing at Phoenix concludes on Sunday with the Ruoff Mortgage 500.
Last week at Vegas, Alex Bowman went to victory lane. Ross Chastain had a strong run, leading 83 laps and finishing third. The new generation of NASCAR car seems to have worked in terms of evening the playing field, as Corey LaJoie ended up with a top 15 and seven different drivers led at least 10 laps.
Below are some drivers to consider for DFS purposes this week. If you have any questions or want to talk NASCAR, you can find me on Twitter at @juscarts.
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Kyle Larson
Starts 21st - DraftKings $10,500 | FanDuel $14,000
Kyle Larson starts 21st. Sure, this race will be unpredictable, but that's no reason to ignore that Kyle Larson has the highest upside in this field when you factor in place differential.
This type of race doesn't play to Larson's strongest points, but even Larson's worst types of tracks are places he can succeed. He isn't a great pack racer, but he does occasionally find himself in position for top 10s at those types of tracks.
William Byron
Starts 12th - DraftKings $9,400 | FanDuel $10,500
Byron just feels like a solid play. Would I like a little more place differential potential? Sure. But if this track really races like a 1.5-mile Daytona, then a former Daytona winner like Byron is a solid option in this second tier of drivers. I also like pairing him and Larson because teamwork should matter here, so if those two can hook up and move towards the front, there will be some good opportunities for fantasy scoring.
Martin Truex Jr.
Starts 26th - DraftKings $9,200 | FanDuel $10,000
Truex is a notoriously bad driver at these pack tracks. Five top 10s in 34 Daytona starts. Eight in 34 Talladega races. Not great.
But he was really solid at pre-repave Atlanta, with 12 top 10s in 24 starts. This track is much different now, but I still think Truex's intermediate track prowess will make this a better spot for him than the 2.5-mile pack-racing tracks are.
And there's the place differential upside. Truex starts 26th. The Gibbs cars haven't been running as well as we're used to this season, but you've got to play a Gibbs car that starts 26th, right?
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Chase Briscoe
Starts 1st - DraftKings $8,200 | FanDuel $8,300
In the Truck and Xfinity races, we saw that it's easy to move around through the field on the repaved Atlanta track, but it isn't easy to pass for the lead.
So if you're looking for an affordable option who could get you laps led points, you should look at Briscoe. Sure, the potential carnage gives him a ton of downside, but if he can hold off Ryan Blaney early, then Briscoe could give himself a little cushion to protect against later issues.
Erik Jones
Starts 23rd - DraftKings $6,900 | FanDuel $5,500
Jones has been solid this year, but luck hasn't been on his side, crashing out twice.
But he was competitive at Daytona, leading three laps and mostly showing some solid pack racing skills. And he's a former Cup Series winner at Daytona. So if you think Daytona/Talladega results will tell us something about this race, then Jones is a great value play. Could easily finish in the top 10 based on how he's run this year, which would be a really nice fantasy day for the 43 car.
Noah Gragson
Starts 30th - DraftKings $5,800 | FanDuel $3,500
The package isn't the same as it is in Xfinity, but it should race similar to how it raced on Saturday. Gragson didn't have a great result because he got into some issues, but he showed some really good speed in the race and led 38 laps. He starts pretty far back on Sunday and has some decent place differential upside. As far as the puntier options go this week, Gragson is my favorite, with David Ragan being another solid one if Rick Ware Racing can continue to show improvement.
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